


Vignettes

by Tamsydoodles



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Light on the shipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-28
Updated: 2013-10-15
Packaged: 2017-12-16 11:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/861586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamsydoodles/pseuds/Tamsydoodles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short ficlets on the intertwined lives of The Signless and the one he called Mother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She has sacrificed everything. 

The lives of Jadebloods, though not easy, are safe – much more than anyone can say about any other trolls. There have been mutants before – very few, but certainly they existed – but she has never intervened. In her earlier years, she truly believed that they were destined to die, and yet now here she stands, wrapping a tiny grub with candy red blood in one of her many cloaks and setting off into the harsh Alternian sun. A lump of nerves settles in her stomach and she is unable to rid herself of it. This could be a mistake.

The caverns hold nothing for her now. No doubt even her lusus would turn her back on the jadeblood – it was kill or be killed, and with a grub to care for, she cannot spare any thought to the society she has left behind. Home is no more. She is alone.

Yet, as she smiles down at the tiny grub in her arms, she realizes she will never be alone again. It is time for her to cast of the skin of her old life, time to take a new name.

Dolorosa.

Mother.


	2. Chapter 2

He is learning. 

It is hard, at first, and they must stay isolated. As sweeps pass, she finds it is increasingly difficult to keep him in the shadows where he cannot be harmed. Indeed her son seems to relish the attention of other trolls. His garments, embroidered with just enough rust to get them through marketplaces without unwanted attention, seem to sprout candy red every time she turns around. 

This is dangerous and The Dolorosa _does not like this_. Her child knows the consequences of his actions and sooner or later she _knows_ this will end badly. 

But he talks about equality and trolls listen. 

Admittedly, so does she. 

A new age begins. He takes a name. 

Signless.


	3. Chapter 3

She has noticed.

It was subtle at first, a light brushing of their hands just before a sermon or a quick nudge and nervous giggle as they sat huddled in a cave during the day. Blush has turned to flush, and though she may be old, she is not senile. Content purring fills the air as her baby holds another as tenderly as she once held him. 

It was only a matter of time. Mutant or not, quadrants must be filled. Her child must grow up.

But there is no one else. Through all the trolls they have met, the only one he has expressed any interest in is her. True, there are friends, and no shortage of enemies, but his pale and black quadrants remain as empty as her own.

He has managed to slip out again at twilight, foolishly believing his mother is still deep in dreams. She does not stop him, but watches through slitted eyes as his disciple follows him out of the cavern and snuggles up close to him on a rock a few feet outside. 

It is then she realizes that there will never be any other quadrants to fill.


	4. Chapter 4

He had begun to doubt himself.

Sermon upon sermon yields nothing but cruel remarks from highbloods. Their following remains small and scattered, and the future seems as hopeless as the past. He is hunted night and day by trolls of every blood color – some for loyalty to the hemospectrum, others for want of the generous bounty placed on his head. 

She is proud of him – though he has done little to change the world, even a single word against the castes took more courage than she could muster. As he speaks (wonderful words full of passion and everything she could ever hope from a troll she could call her child), she remains in the shadows mending the many holes in his weathered gray cloak.   
He sleeps less and less, tormented by seas of candy red, and light begins to leave his eyes. A comforting hand on his shoulder no longer calms his nightmares, and she knows she is useless. The Disciple knows her words now fall on deaf ears.

Eventually he refuses to speak at all. Followers dwindle to nothing and the age of the Signless seems to be at an end. The aging mutant refuses to see anyone, preferring the company of dark solitude to that of even the two closest to him. His robust, charismatic sermons are reduced to little more than whispers of an age he failed to create, failed to impact. There were no stories about lost causes, and in his mind it is better to distance himself because he does not know how to say goodbye. 

Something changes in the Signless when a lanky lowblood with mismatched eyes decides to join the forlorn trio. The stories he tells in his quick, velvety tone are short and dark, but they always end with comrades banding together in hopes that the Signless will free them. The slight lisp in his voice, rather than childish, only adds to the severity of his words. For the first time in far too many sweeps, the Signless speaks for all to hear.

There is hope.


	5. Chapter 5

She is nervous.

They are coming and she knows it.

A seadweller was spotted at the last sermon, and all seadwellers swear loyalty to the Empress. 

The days of the Signless are numbered.


	6. Chapter 6

He is terrified. 

There is not much life left in his aging body, but there is no troll that ever wishes for death. The highbloods draw closer and there is little hope.

A final sermon is etched into the walls of the very last cave they take refuge in.


	7. Chapter 7

She is penitent.

Arrows fly and she sees nothing but crimson. His disciple screams, begs, pleads and it hurts the Dolorosa that she can do nothing but watch. Her child is dying, suffering with all the pain in the world and she is glued to the side of a murderous highblood with sickening bloodlust deep in his eyes. Heavy chains keep her arms at her sides and all she can do is bleed jade tears. He screams, anger pulsing in his last breath – anger she does not know accompanied with the desperation to live and the fear of death.

Her mouth is gagged. She cannot tell him goodbye.

The Signless is dead and it is her fault, her fault because she has raised him and cared for him and she cannot do it any longer. 

The next day she is sold, her eyes shot with blood but her mouth a grim line of determination. Somehow even an old, battered jade blood like her is worth a pretty penny to the right troll and it hurts her that the very institutions her child had fought so hard to defend were the very ones controlling her every move.

There is no forgiveness for the sins she has committed. She has failed to protect him and in that she is the worst troll to walk Alternia, worse than any of the highbloods. 

She is led away in chains.


	8. Chapter 8

He is a whisper on the wind. 

Her Imperious Condescension has forbidden the mention of the Signless and his name has ceased to be his own. 

The age of Signless is past. The age of the Sufferer arrives in a wave of silence and the delicate chains of silver that hang around the necks of those who recall the past are more dangerous than candy red blood. 

In terror, the trolls of Alternia resort to fleeting murmurs. For several sweeps, she tries desperately to hear news of her little family, whether it be any trolls acting in her child's name or the whereabouts of the others. News comes cruelly as Mindfang pulls the heavy chain around her neck and whispers the truth into her ear, voice slurred with alcohol. Content with the shock and pain on her slave's face, she loosens her grip and allows the Dolorosa to step back. Hopelessness deadens the Dolorosa's limbs, each step numbed. They quicken when she sees the side of the ship. In an instant, she is over the side, the chain around her neck closing off her windpipe.

Muted screams fill her ears and the Dolorosa begins to choke, sputtering as her body fights her mind in an effort to survive. She blacks out only to awake later to the crack of a whip on her back.

Sweeps later, she faces the seadweller with fire in her eyes and raises her chains. _You cannot break me_ , she hisses with more confidence than she has in many sweeps and he laughs, he _cackles_ at her bravery. Mockery. 

He shoves his rifle under her chin, warning her darkly that _if she wishes to live she will do as he says_.

The Dolorosa shakes her head and smiles grimly. She has been dead since the day her child was murdered, and no matter what Dualscar says to her he cannot break her. He can do her no harm. 

There is no pain when he pulls the trigger.


	9. Chapter 9

She is free.

Again she can hold her child close and whisper in his ear, again she can cradle him. His eyes are free of darkness and they look up at her in gratitude. She is forgiven, though he insists there is nothing she did wrong.

They are together and that is how they will stay.

Forever.


End file.
